now, we did have some snow last night. in fact anywhere from 3 to 5 inches of snow. kind of a wet, sort of sticky snow as the temperatures warm up. and they are expected to get above freezing today. really no major issues on the road as i mentioned in terms of the temperatures, which are cooler, but going to 34. it's going to cause a lot of the ice to dissipate. there will be some ice in places where you have the overpasses, where air can actually get above and below the surface. and that might cause some treacherous driving. for the most part roads were pretreated last night. they had the snow overnight too and so conditions, all things considered, couldn't be better. something else to mention, on the other side of this roadway, way beyond the line of trees, you've got the airport. we have been seeing planes take off and land quite a bit so yet another sign that they are able to weather the storm here in buffalo. people in buffalo, certainly a wonderful, hard-edged bunch. they can take anything winter dishes out. a lot of times they get snow not

just in inches but in feet. this was small doings in terms of this winter storm and conditions pretty good as we ease into the holiday season with over 43 million people taking to the road and to the skies and to the rails just trying to get to grandma's house for thanksgiving. now let's send it over to la guardia in new york and my colleague, katy tur ir. >> reporter: hey, reynolds, it's nothing in new york like what we're seeing where you are, no snow, just some rain and some wind. here at la guardia, there's only a handful of delays on the board and a couple of cancellations, so things are looking pretty good for the moment. we have maura here. you just came from connecticut, an hour and a half early for your flight. how's it looking. >> it's looking okay so far. we're flying to dallas. they're telling us that we're on time, which is great. the roads are a little slick so we wanted to get extra time to get through security. >> reporter: were you expecting to be able to leave on time? >> i was not expecting to leave on time. in fact i was thinking i'd be lucky if i got out tonight.

>> reporter: it looks like everything is going to be fine for you. >> looking good so far. fingers crossed. >> reporter: lucky you, right? >> so far. >> reporter: so far most of the travelers are like maura. we just spoke with one person who had an hour delay. coming into la guardia is a much different story, an hour delay coming in. in philly it's about a two-hour delay coming in but the outbound flights are looking pretty decent. now let's head to tom costello who's in pittsburgh. tom? >> reporter: katy, thank you. here in pittsburgh we've got somewhere in the neighborhood of an inch or 2 on the ground here in terms of snow. we had some freezing rain and also some sleet over the course of the past 24 hours, but at the moment most of that has subsided now. it is, however, very cold. pittsburgh airport not dramatically affected at the moment in terms of delays or cancellations, but we're watching the entire system. expected to see several hundred cancellations today. we've already got somewhere in the neighborhood of 300. and the delays are also expected to build. and of course those crunch

airports are the ones we're watching. you talked about new york, we're also watching boston, philadelphia, the washington area, probably also buffalo because they're looking at snow there and then as you stepped further east, chicago and also atlanta. major hub cities. so when you start to see delays out of one airport, ripple effect to the other airports and that could spread. you could see delays in denver, in l.a., in san francisco throughout the course of the day. the good news is, though, at the moment this is a rain event, not a snow event. they can fly through rain as well as it's not freezing rain and that creates its own series of delays. if it's just a rain event, this will probably turn out okay, most people getting home safe low for thanksgiving. we're also watching the roads very closely and the rain and the sleet and the ice can make for a very treacherous period. that's the latest from pittsburgh, p.a., where it's a very balmy, what, 25, 28 degrees, guys. al

alex, back to you. >> thank you so much, tom. our reporters out in the field, reynolds wolf in buffalo, katy tur in la guardia and tom costello in cold, chilly pittsburgh. we'll have meteorologist bill karins break down the forecast for us today and tomorrow and that's coming up. turning now to the nation's health care law and another legal challenge at issue, the law's contraception mandate and whether employers with conflicting religious beliefs must comply with the law's requirement to provide birth control. the white house says the president believes no one, including the government or for-profit corporations should be able to dictate those decisions to women. on the west coast, tuesday, the president took on critics of his signature piece of legislation. >> anybody who's going to keep on pushing against that, they will meet my resistance because i am willing to fix any problems that there are but i'm not going to abandon people to make sure they have got health insurance in this country. that is not something we're going to do. >> meanwhile, some senate democrats are putting pressure on the white house to do more to

ensure things go smoothly down the road n a letter sent to the white house yesterday, seven democratic senators called for a permanent ceo to oversee the website come 2014. joining me now, msnbc contributor and democratic strategist, jimmy williams, and republican strategist hogan gidley. hi, guys. >> hello. >> the white house is insisting it's going to be on track to fix this website by december, which means three more working days if you don't count tomorrow. republicans see the health care law as the gift that keeps on giving, but there's a new poll that finds most americans are actually unaffected by this law. as politico points out, a million and a half people applied in october suggesting interest is on the rise. so, jimmy, do you think the president can turn the tables on this debate? >> it needs to make the website work. i tried yesterday to log on to go see -- to go shopping and i could not do it. the website still not let me log on. >> really? >> that's right. so i've had to now call the phone number, the 1-888 number

and fill out my application on the telephone three times. that is not a good track record. not just for me but i'm sure lots of people. but at the same time it's better. me being able to get health insurance on january 1st is better than not having it at all. and so i want the website to work. i demanded the website works and if he doesn't have it working in three days, then he's going to have to answer to his critics, including me, a democrat. >> but you got it, right? you got your health insurance via the phone? >> no, not yet. not yet. i still haven't been able to shop. and i applied the first time on october 4th. >> okay. hogan, there's new polling out there which shows that support for congressional republicans has grown following the rollout of obama care for exactly the reasons jimmy was just spelling out there. americans now give republican lawmakers a slight edge over their democrat colleagues. if next week's elections were held today, look at that,

incumbent republican senators face nearly all of the primary challenges come 2014 elections. so how are republicans going to battle the tea party and democrats in general, because they have got to go for it on both sides? >> right, it's a tough thing. this is one of the things we've had in the republican party for quite some time. i think as you mentioned early, politically obama care is the gift that keeps on giving. this website -- it will be fixed sooner or later. but one of the issues brought up in congressional testimony not too long ago from one of sebelius' folks was basically that 40% of the website, the back end of the website, the important part that actually gets the money to the insurers, that actually pays for the claims hasn't even been built yet. >> right. >> and he said, oh, don't worry about it, we have until january 1st. it's not even built. how can it be tested between now and january 1st for that to work. so my pointing is jimmy is right. it will be fixed. you'll be able to sign up and get health care. but republicans can't continue to focus on the website itself, because when it is fixed, we're going to have a ton more arrows

in the quiver to fire at this president because this thing -- we haven't even touched on actually getting health care out of this and how difficult that's going to be with a doctor shortage, the pool -- the places you can go is smaller as well. the prices are already going up. you're seeing stories about that too. so this is a political gift that keeps on giving. but at its core, and republicans need to focus on this, it's about people. and people's relationship with their doctor and actually getting health care. and the talking pointing that hurts us the most is for the life of me as the president would say, i don't understand why republicans don't want people to have health care. we're going to have to fight that battle. but i think obama care will make that fight easier for us because they won't be able to get that health care he so adamantly claims he wants people to get. >> you know, the president has really changed his tune from a couple of weeks ago, it's been pointed out by reuters jeff mason, jimmy. he shifted the message to positive benefits that his law

has achieved and piling on republicans for rooting his failure. he's been hitting the road this week, he's across the country and making good on all this and had a much more boisterous tone. is this going to be enough to make the red state dems feel less anxious? >> well, they voted for it so -- or in the house some of them voted against it. so their record on this, either they supported obama care three years ago or didn't. most of them did. and so they have to go home and run on the fact that they voted for obama care. that's fine. they should say they voted for obama care because to hogan's point, i still haven't seen the republican plan on health care reform. i don't know where it is. it hasn't been introduced in the house, it hasn't been introduced in the senate. not a single republican has drawn a bill to come up with a republican health care reform plan. so until they do that, this is something that the democrats can say it's better than the status quo. the status quo of kicking people off their insurance because they get cancer or saying no, like i was said no by three different insurers in virginia because of a pre-existing condition, if they're okay with the status

quo, then they can live with the status quo but red state democrats can say we're not okay with that. as soon as the website is fixed, i personally think obama care will be great. i think people will sign up for it, just like in massachusetts. and the president's tone on this -- go ahead, i'm sorry. >> no. i was going to say whether it's rips weighing in with a plan or just weighing in in general, i just wanted to play something chris christie said on a radio show and get hogan to react to that. here's that. >> this is just an awful law that made no sense, and that's why i didn't get into a state exchange. no, i have absolutely no regrets. in fact i'm really glad that the train wreck is not mine, it's his. >> train wreck. is this christie positioning himself ahead of 2016, hogan? >> oh, he's been positioning himself for that. train wreck was a term something that harry reid used. chris christie has a few things on issues and he's trying to bolster and he's on the right side of this and i think it will

help him if he decides to run in 206 sgleen but alex -- >> in my opinion it's his personality and grumpiness, something jimmy can completely understand and relate to. >> absolutely, because i'm pretty grumpy all the time usually. >> that's right. >> i want to touch on this real quick. where is chris christie's health care plan for new jersey? where's chris christie's plan for running for president for health care reform? what is his plan? i want to know what his plan is. he doesn't have one. so if he's okay with the status quo, he gets to keep it. >> all right, you guys. have a good thanksgiving tomorrow, grumpy or otherwise. >> thanks, god bless. clear skies in miami, florida, on your left. portland, oregon, on the right. that's not the story in other parts of the country. we'll continue to track thanksgiving storms coming up. and it's being called the knockout game. reports of a dangerous trend that's catching on across this country. yikes, look at that. is this one for real or overblown hysteria. also coming up, how walmart workers plan to use black friday to push their fight for a living wage. and today's big question,

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it's very scary because i walk this way every day from the hospital to the train. >> it's scary. i'm a mom and i have kids. >> this new trend is starting over here too. a lot of people are going to get hurt. >> that's just a few people who say they're concerned about what's being called the knockout game. you've probably heard about it. there have been several recent reports of teens randomly purchling people walking by them trying to knock them out cold with one hit. attacks have been reported in several states with at least five deaths reported but there's new criticism about the media

coverage saying the trend of the knockout game is just a myth. zerlina, even "the new york times" is quoting, police officials in several cities where such attacks have been reported say that the game amounted to its more than an urban myth and the attacks might be nothing more than the random assaults that have occurred. sure shall these kind of attacks have always happened, so the criticism comes from where? >> i think the criticism comes from a few attacks. they're despicable, deplorable as reverend al sharpton said and very scary, right, because of the random nature of these attacks. but that doesn't mean that there's evidence or data to support that they're widespread or that there is an official knockout game that teenagers are playing and posting the video of those attacks online or social media websites. i think that it's a problem. >> sure. >> it's tragic. it's not an epidemic or something that we all should be afraid of. i think it is an urban myth. >> you and i were talking during

the commercial break and we both agree social media is fueling these problem. you get guys that put it up and -- >> yeah, i want to be a copy cat. we saw that with planking, something like that. but the bottom line is this is not the first time something like this has occurred where the media paints something as an epidemic or something we should all be afraid of. in the 1980s here in new york city they called it wilding, quote unquote wilding. the "new york post" was covering then the random attack on the central park jogger and young teenagers in central park attacking random people. they actually were charged and convicted of something they didn't do because of that sort of sensational coverage. >> what's interesting is it's often reported that this so-called game is being played by young black kids that are targeting random white people. here's what new york city police commissioner ray kelly said. they're still trying to sort out those types of details but used some interesting words to describe it. let's listen to that. >> some of it is slapping, but

it's still a concern, of course. some phrase that's used is polar bearing or polar bear and knockout has also been used. we've seen this in the past. but i would like to urge anyone who has been victimized by this to come forward and let us know. >> on the heels of that, you mentioned reverend al sharpton. he had to address this on "politics nation" because there's so many people coming out saying we need you to address this, rev, so let's listen to what he said. >> it's deplorable, it's foolish, and it's unacceptable. and i'll be working with others to fix this senseless violence. i also urge entertainers and people with influence on young people to speak out and discourage it. >> so i also want to before i let you answer quote what you wrote here. you say in your piece, does a white representative have to put out a press release after every school shooting or random act of violence committed by young

white males. the reverend al sharpton was not elected to be president of the black people. >> i'm playing with a little snark there. reverend al sharpton or reverend jesse jackson are not the representatives of all of black america. black america is not a monolith where random acts of teenagers in one state represent all black youth everywhere. it's dangerous to paint black youth as dangerous. we saw that with trayvon martin. he was smeared as a criminal. and i think that it leads to, you know, an amount of white panic. >> okay. zerlina maxwell, thanks for joining us. hey, bon jovi, taylor swift and prince william? what inspired wills to lend his royal pipes to sing "living on a prayer." and you're looking live at portland, oregon. that's where the sun is shining but lots of america dealing with rough weather. bill karins is tracking it all for us coming up. and we want to know why you are thankful this holiday

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the united states population is going to grow by over 90 ovemillion people,ears and almost all that growth is going to be in cities. what's the healthiest and best way for them to grow so that they really become cauldrons of prosperity and cities of opportunity? what we have found is that if that family is moved into safe, clean affordable housing, places that have access to great school systems, access to jobs and multiple transportation modes then the neighborhood begins to thrive and then really really take off. the oxygen of community redevelopment is financing. and all this rebuilding that happened could not have happened without organizations like citi. citi has formed a partnership with our company so that we can take all the lessons from the revitalization of urban america to other cities. so we are now working in chicago and in washington, dc and newark. it's amazing how important safe, affordable housing is to the future of our society.

an ethical battle over feeding the homeless in public places is playing out in los angeles and it could force a charity to stop its good deed of doing so. that's because the los angeles council is considering a ban on such anti-hunger efforts after complaints from homeowner. they claim some of the 200 homeless accepting free meals are becoming squatters. l.a. has the second largeless homeless population. it is the latest city to either consider or pass such a ban in recent years. ted lan drit is the cofounder of the greater west hollywood food coalition. welcome to you, ted. >> thank you. >> i know we have a councilmember with who you're doing battle, one of two

democrat councilmembers proposing this all in an effort to get organizations just like yours to take your homeless feeding and move it indoors. i want to say that we did reach out to the councilman who in a statement said my motion requests that city departments study how other cities are addressing the issue. i want to know how other people ensure the safety of people being fed in the public right of way. i know that you've been working with the councilman on solving this problem, so when you hear the homeowners and their concerns, they say your actions are honorable, ted, but it's creating squatters. what do you say to them? >> what i say, alex, is all of that is totally disingenuous if not a downright series of lies. the councilman and i have not been working together. he proclaims publicly that he's been working with us. he may very well have been working with our angry neighbor adversaries, but we never hear from him, except to criticize us and demonize us and criminalize

the people we serve. and as the angry neighbors, they are a bizarre bunch of people because they don't want to talk to us. they never have. they slanderous and slime us in the worst way on the internet and in e-mails. they demand that our employers fire us. they're out to get us any which way but they don't want to talk to us and they don't want to know the people we serve. >> well, clearly, ted, you've got to have some thick skin here because you've been doing this kind of advocacy work for a very long time. but finding a balance, though, ted, between feeding the homeless and protecting the rights of homeowners and others in public spaces, i mean do you see an answer on how to do that? is it possible to take the feeding of these 200 or so and move it indoors? >> i don't think moving it indoors does anything. i think the object of the angry 98 pours and the real estate

interests is to move us out of town, get rid of us, send us out to the desert somewhere. and my answer to your question, alex, is simply that i think the answer is a systemic community answer. everybody in the community should care about the least among us, should do what they can to help them as individuals. and not send them off somewhere, certain low not keep them at arm's length, not demonize them, not refuse to get to know who they are. if everybody participated with us, and we're just a bunch of volunteers. we're from all walks of life, from all sectors of the population, if everybody just did a little bit with us, then it would be easy. >> hey, do you have thanksgiving plans to feed the homeless tomorrow? >> what we do on thanksgiving is take the homeless in a chartered bus to the house of blues in west hollywood which serves a

spectacular thanksgiving gospel brunch. we've done that every year for the past 10 or 12 years. >> that sounds like that will be a wonderful experience for all involved. ted, best of luck with all of this, thanks so much. >> thank you. here's a look at some of the stories topping the news now. an arizona mother and stepfather are being charged with kidnapping and child abuse after allegedly locking their three girls in their bedrooms about three years. two girls, 12 and 13, escaped to a neighbor's house. police found her 17-year-old sister locked in her bedroom. the girls were malnourished and hadn't bathed in four to six months. a nevada judge has denied o.j. simpson a new trial. simpson will be eligible for parole in 2017. he'll be 70 years old. a florida school has threatened to expel a 12-year-old girl if she doesn't straighten or cut her natural hair claiming that beautiful hair there violates the school's dress code. faith christian academy pbans hair styles that are considered a distraction. she has one week to decide if

she's going to change her hair or leave the school. ♪ you've got to hold on >> prince william singing alongside taylor swift and jon bon jovi last night during a charity event for homeless youth. lovely read susan. but isn't it time to turn the page on your cup of joe? gevalia, or a cup of johan, is like losing yourself in a great book. may i read something? yes, please. of course. a rich, never bitter taste cup after cup. net weight 340 grams. [ sighs ] [ chuckles ] [ announcer ] always rich, never bitter. gevalia.

developing now, this just in. thisrochester, new york, one of the many spots impacted by a wall of storms moving its way across the east on the busiest travel day of the year. welcome back, everyone. the travel nightmare is our top story this half hour. gusting winds, heavy rain and snow barreling down on parts of the east coast. it's already making a mess of your holiday getaway. >> we were worried when yesterday was snowing. >> all it takes is a delay at a couple major airports and the whole country can be affected. >> that is called the domino effect. more than 43 million in the u.s. are expected to make the trip home for thanksgiving by error by car.

so far hundreds of flies have been cancelled. the roads are certainly slick, making for tough driving conditions. once the storm passes, the winds could disrupt the iconic macy's thanksgiving day parade. the very latest on this, let's go to nbc meteorologist -- >> it could have been worse. >> really? >> if it had been snow -- a lot of this was just rain and came in the middle of the night so that was okay for a lot of east coast areas. this storm is just rocketing up the coast. georgia you're fine, florida, you're fine. it snows in greensville, south carolina. it's also mixing in with snowflakes in charlotte, north carolina. so that doesn't happen all that often. the worst at the airports, right where we thought where the highest volume is and the rain, you'd expect these delays. one to two-hour delays with this big storm going through. if that's as bad as it gets, we're doing okay. much of the heavy rain is existing new york city. it's now shifted north heading up through boston and in maine. as far as south carolina goes, a lot of your area has begun to

clear out but north carolina still getting a good deal of light rain. you notice the white on the map, the snow breaking out. i mentioned the charlotte area mixing with rain and snow. also the mountains, that's probably one of the worst forks. we're watching the storm exit and by 7:00 should be okay. there are cold conditions in the great lakes and that comes to the east coast tomorrow and it will be windy for that macy's parade. i think there will be some balloons but i doubt they'll be able to do all of them. >> we'll see how it goes. thank you so much, bill karins. well, the supreme court will take on obama care again. six months after the court ruled obama carrie constitutie is con it's agreed to hear if companies have to offer contraception if they object on religious grounds. with a good day to all of you, i'm going to start with you, keli, we have hobby lobby, one

of the challengers. this statement says this legal challenge has always remained about one thing and one thing only, the right of our family businesses to live out our sincere religious convictions as guaranteed by the law and the constitution. so you wrote about this. talk about the problem here. >> the problem is that all sounds really innocent and harmless until you start asking the question where do you draw the line. what's to stop another employer from one day saying i'm a christian scientist. i don't believe in medical science at all. i'm sorry that your kid needs chemotherapy, but i religiously do not believe in chemotherapy. if you want to work here, none of my thousands of employees can take chemotherapy. >> you can get the law stepping in lots of times. >> but where do you draw the line? is it only when a kid needs chemotherapy? what about people seeking blood transfusions whose bosses might be jehovah's witnesses. the question becomes where do you draw the line and that's why it's a slippery slope. quote, when sandra fluke

testified in favor of birth control coverage she wasn't criticized for trying to curtail religious freedom, she was called a slut and a prostitute. the fda held up contraception, it wasn't because of the efficacy but because of a fear it would make girls promiscuous. so is this really all about sexism? >> no, i think this is not about religious freedom, it's about sexism. if we look at viagra, for example, i don't see companies having trouble insuring viagra for unmarried men and yet birth control is something that has substantive health benefits for women and is still under so much scrutiny. this is not a controversial issue. 99% of sexually active women have at some point used birth control. i don't know why this is still taboo. >> it's an interesting -- why is it? >> and many of whom are religious and catholic, by the way. >> you make a good point. bill, we have lower federal courts that are split on their decisions about this. does it mean that anything that

this court is willing to take up is going to be up for a lot of controversy? >> well, it's a controversial issue but because you have the split at the lower court level you shouldn't assume the supreme court taking it on means that the fix is it. this isn't necessarily the conservative justices determined to overturn this part of obama care. the liberal justices said there's division at the lower court level, we have to resolve it. because the outcome is uncertain, it's so incumbent on opinion pieces like what keli wrote to raise the issue of what -- where this might lead. just as it goes on here in the public, there is a hesitancy on job r john roberts not to have another decision like citizens united tarring his legacy. so the public is concerned about what does this mean for blood transfusions? what does it mean for vaccines? what does it mean for psychotherapy if my boss is a scientologist. is that at risk?

if people realize that people are afraid of this outcome, that might keep the justices in check. >> i'm going to throw up a "new york times" opinion piece. are corporations trying to twist the first amendment here? >> the first amendment is not a sword, it's a shield. so it can be used to protect yourself from infringements on your rights, but it cannot be used to impose your religious beliefs on other people, and that's exactly what these employers are trying to do. >> you know what, though, thinking about corporations, phil, mitt romney is the one who famously said corporations are people back when he was running for president. so if a court determines that a corporation can have the same rights as people, what would be the effect? >> well, let's take that logic to an extreme. it's one thing to say a corporate executive can spend money secretly on political campaigns. i don't like it but it's not going to infringe on my rights as an employee. if the court is going to say an

employer can infringe upon my rights, if i can't get any other job in a struggling economy but to work for someone with religious views that he wants to impose on me, that's a whole different ball game which i think is why the court will we very, very hesitant to step on that land mine. >> do you think obama care supporters should be worried about this? >> i think they should be worried for a lot of reasons and mainly because the poll numbers are so bad because of this botched rollout. but i do think there is a larger issue at stake. even if you are someone that is religious, i consider myself rnls, this is opening a door of potential harm to all americans if the supreme court does not step in and say as a private employee i have the right to dictate my own medical care, my employer shouldn't. >> thank you ladies so much, bill, thanks to you as well on this day before thanksgiving. you can all find more from our panel on this show's website, thomasroberts.msnbc.com. ready for everything you

never knew you wanted to know about the presidential turkey pardon? it is time for the poli side bar. the first tales of spared turkeys began in the lincoln administration. lincoln's son asked him to write out a presidential pardon for the bird meant for the dinner. george h.w. bush was the first president to hold an official turkey pardon ceremony but sent that lucky bird to an unfortunately new home, the fro frying pan park, seriously, in virginia. his son, george w. bush granted the first reprieve for a female bird who was also the first to send the pardoned turkey to disneyland to marshall the theme park's parade. the top two birds spend the two nights before the pardon in a luxury hotel suite. this year's birds, caramel and popcorn, have been at the

historic willard hotel. anyway, as we told you yesterday but just can't resist reminding you, the white house is asking the public to pick the bird to reprieve. there's all the information you need to make an informed decision, including their gobbles. [ turkey gobbling ] yeah, i told you it's all stuff you'd never want to know. anyway the president will reveal your choice today. live coverage at 1:20 p.m. eastern time here on msnbc. we're just having a little fun, okay? okay. [ male announcer ] they say it was during an arm wrestling match that mr. clean realized the way to handle bigger, tougher messes was better leverage. that's why he created his new magic eraser handy grip. it has a handle that firmly attaches to the eraser so you get better leverage and more oomph with less effort.

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you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. how naughty was he? oh boy... [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. black friday is around the corner and walmart employees plan to kick off the biggest shopping day of the year with 1500 protests at walmart stores across this country. the nation's largest retailer

has been under fire recently for what critics call poor working conditions and what some are even calling poverty wages. call of change is one of the groups organizing the black friday protests and their executive director joins me now. with a welcome to you, i'm going to show some video from last year's protests. we're talking about protests, right, not walkouts. you're not asking people to go on strike or anything like that? >> no, no, these are one day, episodic moments where these workers are able to raise their voices and bring their concerns and continue to organize what they have been doing for a number of years now to really push walmart to make right on their responsibility to their workers. >> it seems like it's really gaining steam. you're expecting a lot more people. you got 1500 of these demonstrations set. >> absolutely. even in the face of the retaliation, we've seen these brave workers stand up. they really sit in the legacy of the civil rights movement, of workers who have stood up and pushed back for generations. you know, walmart made over $15

billion last year. and the american public is actually subsidizing wall market's profits because the workers are not making enough money to make ends meet. >> what do the workers want walmart to do? >> they want them to pay a living wage. for a company in the face of downturn and economic recession made huge profits and now the american public is actually paying about $1.5 billion in b subsidie subsidies, food stamps, other services for walmart workers because they're not being paid a living wage. these workers want to work. they want to be able to earn a living, take care of their family. >> it was interesting, there was that photo that surfaced that showed that sign when they were talking about getting some food donations for employees who might not have enough to eat, food on their table for thanksgiving. let's listen to what a former employee had to say about that. >> with the food bins, they're asking people, the associates to donate to their own associates. i mean this is a multimillion

dollar company. what do they want these associates to donate with, their food stamps? >> you know, the company is saying, look, we're putting out something there and trying to help our workers, but i see by the smile on your face you're not reading it that way. >> the waltons as a family have more money than the bottom 42% of americans. you know, we're heading into a holiday with the word "thanks" and "giving" in it. and for walmart as the nation's largest employer shall the largest employer of women, the largest employer of african-americans, they have a responsibility to stand up and take of and be responsible for their employees and provide them a living wage and not ask the taxpayers to pick up the bill for their massive profits. >> do you think that walmart has deaf ears? they don't ever seem to really react to this, and there are other companies who have, they have upped their minimum wage, what they'll be paying their workers. you usually see relative profit increase as well for those companies. >> absolutely. i mean there's been survey that

say show when workers are paid a little more, they actually come back and buy an xbox or buy something for their children and use that money in the store where they're working. you know, the national labor relations board just came out against walmart in a ruling because walmart had been retaliating these brave workers that had been standing up and making their voices heard. this company is continuing to see an increased amount of pressure. we're hoping that not just the visibility from the workers standing up but organizations like mine, civil rights organizations that believe that workers should be paid a living wage, that big companies like walmart have a responsibility, we believe that this energy will hopefully lead to real change. >> all right, thanks for joining us. good luck, friday. >> thanks for having me. today's producer pick was a team decision. men with a turkey, they have somewhere to turn, right? for the first time in its nearly 30-year history, men will also answer the phones at the butterball hotline. you can read more about this by heading to thomas' facebook page. before we go to break, david letterman couldn't resist getting in on the butterball

jokes, so check this out. >> now, depending on your specific turkey needs, you can request a female operator, a male operator, a male operator dressed as a female operator or a female operator with a mustache. butterball, the dead bird people. >> ladies and gentlemen, that just ain't right. it's 7am and steve is already thinking about tomorrow. which is why he's investing in his heart health by eating kellogg's raisin bran®. not only is kellogg's raisin bran® heart healthy it's a delicious source of potassium. ♪ mom make you eat that? i happen to like raisins. [ male announcer ] invest in your heart health. now that's what i'm talkin' about. with kellogg's raisin bran®. [ female announcer ] now with kellogg's family rewards you can get even more from the products you love. join today at kfr.com.

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we asked, you answered. question, should retail stores be open on thanksgiving, or does it infringe on workers' rights? daniel tweeted, absolutely not. thanks giving it a time for families and friends to be together. everyone should be able to enjoy that. and should be voluntary and they should get double time. and from teresa, do all traditions have to disappear to make corporate america happy? keep those comments coming on twitter or facebook. tomorrow is certainly a big holiday. hopefully we'll all be spending it with family and friends and taking lots of photos. the ceo of snapchat says some

400 million snaps are sent every day. nearly three-quarters of those are sent by women. joining me to talk about this female phenomenon is the founder of women of tech. thank you for joining us. when we're talking about snapchat, it's important to note this is only up to ten seconds long that these photos and videos can be seen. so what are women using snapchat for? >> women are primarily using snapchat to send funny photos and videos of themselves as well as weird things that they encounter on a daily basis. they're sharing this with their friends. they also like the fact that it's free. so unlike sending text messages through your phone, which cost money, or sending large video files that can take up a lot of data on your smartphone, they really, really like this feature about snapchat. >> i have to say, my daughter sends to her friends pictures of the food they're eating. i'm like, what's that about?

anyway, why do you think women are flocking to snapchat instead of facebook or doing the regular texting? what are the potential pitfalls as well? >> sure, that's a great question. i think one of the reasons, and the primary demographic is 18 to 23-year-olds. women are really using this because they really like the idea that when they send photos and videos to their friends and their friends receive it, it disappears, as you said, within ten seconds. it's quite the opposite experience on facebook. on facebook, everything that you do and you say and you share is captured permanently by facebook. and it's almost creating what i like to call a permanent digital record. i think that this generation is very uncomfortable with that. that's why you're seeing this generation actually not using facebook as much as they used to and starting to look at services like snapchat. >> but allison, what about a little more salacious things

like sexting via snapchat? i have a son that said maybe that's why it's so popular with the girls. >> so i actually don't believe that is what the majority of snapchats that are being sent. if you actually talk with the owner of snapchat, they obviously have access to all of this data. and they have actually come out and said that the majority of snapchats are not being used for sexting. they really are being used to send, you know, funny and goofy photos and just obscure things that people are seeing on a daily basis. >> some of it's not funny at all because it's involving a lawsuit here. the viral video launch by the company goldi-blox, using the beastie boys song. both sides want to go to court over this. what's the beef here? >> it's really interesting. goldiblox is this company i fully supported from the very beginning with their mission. it's creating toys that teaches girls how to build things. ultimately, this is about

getting girls interested in technology at a very young age. >> engineering, stuff like that. >> exactly. however, as companies, i feel we have a moral obligation when we want to use someone else's copyrighted material, you need to get permission for that. >> absolutely. >> in this case, goldieblox did not do that. they used the beastie boys' song "girls" and redid it without their permission. it's caused a lot of legal issues. >> it sure has. we're going to have to get that thing sorted out in court. allison, founder of women who tech, thanks so much for joining us. happy thanksgiving >> thank you. >> that's a wrap of things for me. see you back here on black friday. of course, you can catch "weekends with alex witt" on weekend days. "now" with alex wagner is up next with karen finney. >> how are you, alex? we're going to talk about the latest supreme court challenge of the aca, which puts women's reproductive rights on the line, and i'll talk to planned

parenthood president se seal richards. plus, will congress press ahead with new iranian sanctions in spite of a nuclear agreement. and policy from the pulpit. pope francis weighs in on triple-down economics and no, paul ryan, he doesn't have your back on this one. all that when "now" starts in a mere 180 seconds. [ male announcer ] this is jim, a man who doesn't stand still. but jim has afib, atrial fibrillation -- an irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. that puts jim at a greater risk of stroke.

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♪ all i'd want is you to be my sweet honeybee ♪ ♪ and if was a tree growing tall and green ♪ ♪ all i'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves ♪ grown in america. picked & packed at the peak of ripeness. the same essential nutrients as fresh. del monte. bursting with life™. why are some businesses so determined to block health care for women? it's wednesday, november 27th, and this is "now." i'm karen finney in for alex wagner today. so the supreme court first legalized access to birth control in 1965 in griswold v. connecticut. so why, nearly 50 years later at a time when 99% of sexually active american women use birth

control and a majority of americans support increasing women's access to birth control, are we still talking about it? yesterday, the supreme court agreed to hear two cases conferring the affordable care act's requirement that companies' insurance plans cover birth control. two private for-profit company, the hobby lobby, claim that the birth control mandate is a violation of their religious lib ierty. the owners said they, quote, integrate their faith into their daily lives, including work. and on hobby lobby's website, they proclaim their commitment to, quote, honoring the lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with biblical principles. now, in this case, integrating faith and honoring the lord means cutting off access to reproductive health care for their female employees. it's worth noting that over half of women in america between the ages of 18 and 64 get their health insurance through their employers. and 27 million women are currently being c